Milestones Of Jazz Saxophone Legends - Very Saxy: 15 Original Albums (10-CD)

by Various Artists

Jazz saxophonists always had a reputation of being particularly competitive soloists. In highly entertaining Jam Sessions, "battles" were fought until only one winner was left standing. Legend are the sessions in which Coleman Hawkins, more or less the inventor of the jazz saxophone, had to defend his title against his many successors like Ben Webster, Buddy Tate and others, after he came back on the New York club scene life following a lengthy residence in Europe. Bigband leaders like Count Basie noticed how these competitions among tenor-players could be used to both artistic and commercial advantage early on: take two stylistically completely different musicians, such as Hawkins and Lester Young, and let the sparks fly. Norman Granz took this to another level with his "Jazz At The Philharmonic" concert series, in which he brought together the greatest soloists of Swing and Bebop, always featuring as many saxophonists as possible. Such an all-star ensemble also opens this box-set, when the greatest alto saxophonists of the 50s, Benny Carter, Johnny Hodges and Charlie Parker, casually and excellently prove their championship in the studio. Not all of these concert- and studio-recordings are bloody and adrenaline-infused "battles", of course. Most of the masterpieces collected here are from the heydays of modern jazz and feature almost all of the stars of the era and their qualities are more of a musical than a martial nature. In addition to the many projects that only existed in the studio, there were also always solid bands with a two-tenor-frontline: Gene Ammons & Sonny Stitt, Wardell Gray & Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin & Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Al Cohn & Zoot Sims and from England Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott as the Jazz Couriers. Their sound and approach, however, was always so individually different that it resulted in a worthwhile and highly entertaining experience for their fans.